“A need for rotation”: this is how the Kremlin presented the dismissal on Thursday, February 6, of the head of the Russian space agency Iouri Borissov, in post since July 2022. He is replaced by Dmitri Bakanov, the new director General of Roscosmos, specifies the Kremlin in a press release. “This is a rotation. The corporation needs to develop in a dynamic way,” said the spokesperson for the Russian president Dmitri Peskov.
Dmitri Bakanov, 39, who replaces Iouri Borissov, 68 years old, became the youngest chief of the Russian space agency since his creation in 1992. Before his appointment, this specialist in the banking audit, had occupied since 2022 The position of Vice-Minister of Transport and chaired from 2011 to 2019 a satellite communications company, Gonets, Roscosmos operator.
Spatial industry delay
The Russian space sector has been suffering for years from a chronic under-funding, corruption scandals and failures such as the loss of the Luna-25 lunar probe in August 2023. Even if it has great experience going up In the Soviet era, he now had a delay in the United States, including the company Space X, and China.
In December 2023, the deputy director of Roscosmos, Oleg Frolov, and two other accused had been prosecuted in a case relating to the diversion of more than 4.3 million euros. These problems, however, have not started the ambitions of Russia, which ultimately wants to build its own orbital station to replace the aging ISS and resume missions to the moon. In March 2024, Iouri Borissov had made an unexpected announcement, saying that Moscow was planning to install a nuclear power plant on the moon with China, by 2033-2035.